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An Iseult Idyll 



AND OTHER POEMS 



BOOKS OF POETRY 



POEMS. By Stephen Phillips. Ninth Edition. 
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A SHROPSHIRE LAD, AND OTHER POEMS. 
By A. E. Housman. 



JOHN LANE : LONDON & NEW YORK 



AN ISEULT IDYLL 



AND OTHER POEMS 



BY 

f 

G. CONSTANT LOUNSBERY 



JOHN LANE 

LONDON AND NEW YORK 
I9OI 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies ReoctvEO 

APR. 3 1901 

CIWS3 A/XXc. hkt. 
COPY 8. 



"U*^ 



^''^; 



Copyright^ igoi 
By John Lane 

All rights reserved 



UNIVERSITY PRESS • JOHN WILSON 
AND SON • CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 



To E. H. L. 

IN ADMIRATION AND AFFECTION 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

An Iseult Idyll i 

Atthis 9 

The False Spring ii 

The Sirens 13 

The Siren's Song 19 

The New Eden 25 

A Reverie 28 

Ode to Bacchus 30 

Love and Learning 35 

Remember . 37 

The Better Part 40 

One Happy Hour 48 

Parting 50 

Sapphic Ode to Aphrodite 52 

Sapphics 55 

Rondel 57 

Amechania 58 

vii 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Photine Sings 59 

Song 61 

Farewell 6z 

Love's Silence. 1 64 

Life in Death. II 66 

Death in Life. Ill 68 

REgUIESCAT 70 



I 

AN ISEULT IDYLL 
Part I 

Throughout the ambiguous April day 
The skylark wings his singing way, 
And trills a rhapsody of May. 

The wind that sweetens earth with spring 
Falls on the ocean, wakening 
The rising waves beneath his wing. 

While swiftly from her native lea 
A Cornish bark, rejoicingly. 
Bears Iseult o'er the Irish sea. 



AN ISEULT IDYLL 

With eyes reverted toward the land 
Dimly she sees the paling strand 
Diminish to a silvery band. 

But, as a carrier pigeon springs 
Homeward on strong, exulting wings, 
The alien ship glides on, and flings 

The waters green to gleaming spray, 
Threading its pathless southward way. 
While shine and shower cross the day. 

And where the ripples bud and break 
The sea mews drift along its wake. 
Like boats the tide at will may take. 

Then landward o'er the glistering main 
Fair Iseult flings her song. In vain ! 
The wind beats back the sad refrain, — 



2 

SONG 

Farewell, farewell, a long farewell to thee, 
O happy isle, blue girdled of the sea ! 
Fair are thy fields of green that fade to grey. 
And dim mine eyes, with watching wistfully 
The lengthening of the endless watery way. 
Farewell, farewell, a long farewell to thee. 

Farewell, farewell, a long farewell to thee ! 
Thine is my love, and thine the heart of me, 
Through all the widening of the alien years 
My hopes be thine, and thine the memory 
That brightens through the bitterness of tears. 
Farewell, farewell, a long farewell to thee ! 



SONG 

Farewell, farewell, a long farewell to thee ! 
Thou art the world, what other world could be ? 
Lo ! I had hoped, when life was o'er, to die 
Upon thy breast, and smiling peacefully 
To whisper, ere words falter to a sigh. 
Farewell, farewell, a long farewell to thee ! 



3 
Part II 

As clouds obscure the April skies. 
The overwhelming tears arise. 
And tremble in her baffled eyes. 

The gleeful breezes pluck and woo 
Her kirtle, where the crocus' hue 
Flames up a robe of violet blue. 

Hers is a face whose beauty seen 
Makes one forget what life has been. 
And own her, henceforth, utter queen. 



AN ISEULT IDYLL 

Thus Tristram, dreaming, lingers there 
Unknown, perplexed of her despair. 
And timid, seeing grief so fair. 

" I would not anger thee, by Heaven, 
Yet let my presence be forgiven 
For all the joy that thine has given ! 

" Sorrow, methinks, has wearied thee. 
And weariness comes over me 
From battling with the wind and sea. 

" Behold a goblet rich with gold, 
And mellow wine, matured of old, 
A luscious draught of heat and cold ! 

'' Nay, cheer thy heart, and pledge me then, 
As in those hours of anguish, when 
Wounded I lay among thy men.'* 

6. 



AN ISEULT IDYLL 

So pleads he, till she smiles again, 
And, drinking, feels through every vein 
A joy that trembles into pain. 

He raises high the bowl with half 
The dancing poison, sweet to quaff, 
And drains its sweetness with a laugh. 

And, in a trenchant stroke of light, 
Love cleaves the darkness of their night, 
And puts the fading world to flight. 

As one who knows not Life from Death, 
Nor yet what power Love's language hath. 
He calls with half-abated breath, — 

Iseult ! One wild, unmated word, 
Iseult ! No sound so sweet is heard 
In all the lyric speech of bird. 



AN ISEULT IDYLL 

But, softer than a startled sigh, 
Her voice reluctant, breathes reply, 
Tristram ! — a tender, summoning cry. 

And all is silent save alone 
The sea's reverberate monotone. 
With Love's own voice in unison. 



^i 



8 



4 
ATTHIS 

CHpa/Attv fxev iyo) criOev, ^At6ol, TrdXat Trora.) 

I LOVED thee^ Atth'ts^ long ago, 
Loved thee, nay, breathe it soft and low 
For all its shattered sweetness, so — 
/ loved thee^ Atthis^ long ago ! 

Once, more than life thy slightest curl 
I loved to touch, to call mine. — Girl — 
Thou wonder wrought in rose and pearl — 
How Time has changed us in his whirl ! 

Yea, then thy hands about my brow 
Were more than all these laurels ; how 
They thrilled me uttering every vow ! 
I cannot quite forget — canst thou ? 

9 



ATTHIS 

/ loved thee ; scarcely could I say 
" I love thee " in that bygone day ; 
Too sweet a thing it seemed to play 
The changes on. Said I alway ? 

Ah ! Wild regrets o'er ruins ! Sweet, 
Too wayward are Love's stealthy feet ; 
How all my rhythmic pulses beat 
The sad refrain relax, repeat, — 

/ loved thee^ Jtthis^ long ago. 
Loved thee, nay, breathe it soft and low. 
For all its shattered sweetness, so — 
/ loved thee^ Atth'is^ long ago. 



10 



5 
THE FALSE SPRING 

This Is the joyous birthday of the spring ! 

So thought I when the morning kissed thy 

face, 
And as deep flowers unfold from sleep their 

grace, 
Thine eyes awoke and found mine worshipping. 
Night comes without thee. Lo, the piteous 

thing ! 
My hopes put forth their tender leaves apace. 
When all the blighting winds gave sudden chase. 
And nipped their premature adventuring. 

II 



THE FALSE SPRING 

Since all my spring is winter once again, 
I turn within to warm me ; where the fire — 
Before thine image in a secret shrine 
Effulgent — with an unremitting pain 
Consumes my heart, and feeds my vain desire. 
Till Spring herself shall grant an anodyne. 



12 



6 

THE SIRENS 

Prelude 

While there was day a favouring wind, vouch- 
safed 
By Circe of the braided tresses, sped 
Our dark-prowed ship that fled as flees a bird ; 
Now hovering o'er the wave with pinions spread. 
Now straining to the breeze, now dipping down 
Its crest to quaff a beaker of the brine — 
So fared we toward the sunset and the night. 
Within the twilight, half divined, half seen. 
Dim in the distance floating like a flower, 
I saw a purple speck upon the sea. 

13 



THE SIRENS 

Immediately the wind ceased and the sail 
Flapped idly like a wounded creature's wing, 
While all the waves fell forthwith upon sleep. 
A moment silent sate we marvelling, 
When at a word my comrades, rising, furled 
The helpless sails and stowed them in the hold. 
Then each man grasped his oar of polished pine. 
With one accord they smote the drowsy main. 
And tossed the gleaming water till our wake 
Was dappled with the sea foam, while a path 
Golden with sunlight lured us toward the shore. 
Then I, remembering Circe's boding words. 
Addressed my company and speaking said, — 
" It is not well, O friends, that I alone 
Should know the oracles the goddess told, — 
That dreadful goddess, she of human voice. 
Therefore give ear and learn, and knowing die. 

14 



THE SIRENS 

Or happily we may shun the Fates and death ! 
First did she warn me of the Sirens twain 
Whose dwelling is a field, where diverse flowers 
Speckle the grass as spots a leopard's skin. 
Strange faces have they, delicate as pearls 
Flushed with the fallen daylight, when the sun 
Mirrors his radiance in the roseate main. 
Like hardened drops of water are their eyes, 
Or hke strange gems that glint with borrowed 

light. 
Yea, eyes that veil the malice of the mind, 
Changeful and treacherous as the inconstant sea. 
These twain, like anglers seated on the clifF, 
Cast forth their nets of song upon the deep. 
Or, hiding from their prey as hunters hide. 
They wing destruction with the shaft of song ! 
And he who hears that perfect, poisonous voice, 

15 



THE SIRENS 

The melting magic of that melody, 
Shudders for very sweetness, nor endures j 
But, as a fascinated bird will fly 
Straight to the serpent's throat and sudden doom, 
So fares he, heeding not the glittering eyes 
Until the fragrance of the blinding hair' 
Has stifled him, while venomed kisses draw 
His soul in little drops from out his lips. 
And drink his life as roses sip the dew ! 
'T is told that all along the tawny sand, 
Unmourned, unburied, men's rejected bones 
Lie thick as shells rejected of the sea. 
Fain would I hear what subtle strain of song 
Has slain more heroes than a Trojan spear ! 
Therefore, with Circe's help, I have devised 
A guile whereby I may elude the snare. 
Do ye, O comrades, lash me to the mast, 

l6 



THE SIRENS 

Anointing first your ears with deafening wax. 
But when, like some proud captive whom the 

cords 
First fetter, I shall battle to break free. 
And writhe against the fast-restraining ropes, 
Do ye with bonds constrain me all the more." 
I ceased, and they consenting fast obeyed 
My guileful words, and plied the speeding oar. 
And now the distance lessening I saw 
An island, like a gem of sunlit green, 
Throbbing upon the bosom of the sea ; 
While all the shore curved in a golden rim 
About the wine-dark water 'neath my gaze. 
Then thought I yearning on my own glad isle, 
The rocky Ithaca, and her whose voice 
Made morning joyful and rejoiced the night, 
A blessing, not a bane, to mortal men. 

17 



THE SIRENS 

A faint and distant sound beguiled mine ear ; 

As when within a wood the huntsman hears 

The inarticulate murmur of a stream, 

But knows not whence its liquid voice may flow, 

So I, naught seeing, strained my eager eyes. 

When full upon my startled senses fell. 

In floods of music, all the Siren Song. 



i8 



7 
THE SIREN'S SONG 

Oh, tarry ye a while, 

For welcome, in this isle 
That harbours its delights for thine and thee, 

While listening ye rejoice 

To hear the Siren's voice. 
The Siren's song of love and mystery. 

We twain are wondrous fair. 

And deep within our hair 
The nestling shadows flee from garish day ; 

The sunset in our eyes 

Lingers, when from the skies 
The splendour of the sunlight fades away. 

19 



THE siren's song 

The pale narcissi stand 

Like nymphs on either hand, 
And marvel at their whiteness in the brook ; 

For all their rivalry 

No flower that flecks the lea, 
Can vie with us in field or dell or nook. 

No winter here devours 

The summer's fruits or flowers ; 
The fettered winds go whispering to and fro ; 

No heedless foot forgets 

And slays the violets, 
That hide them where the reeds and grasses 
blow. 

Here Love's sweet self unarmed 
Feels all his fierce ways charmed ; 
His influence falls, like showers of vernal rain, 

20 



THE SIREN'S SONG 

On tired flowers freshening, 
Or birds awakening, 
While pleasure knows no aftermath of pain. 

Come, idle where the stream, 
With many a glint and gleam. 

Floats all its silver ripples to the sea ; 
Or, where the dappled shade 
Half hides the darkening glade. 

Pursue the dancing shadows stealthily. 

Like some shy-footed fawn. 

Surprise the startled morn ; 
And dive within the river where it slips. 

And deepens, and grows still. 

Forgetting how each rill 
Upon the mountain sang with boistrous lips. 

21 



THE siren's song 

Lo ! far within the wood, 

Where dwells the Satyr brood, 
Are springs of milk and honey, while, men say 

Half hidden, through the green. 

Half guessed at, and half seen. 
The maenad and the bassarid do play — 

Garlands they gather there 

To weave about thine hair, 
And, lo, thy couch they smother o'er with flowers. 

They laugh and live as one 

Who hides him from the sun. 
Through all the verdant length of vernal hours. 

And when the nightingale. 
Within the distant dale. 
Maddens the midnight with her song of songs, 

22 



THE SIREN S SONG 

That wanderer, the moon, 
With listening feigns a swoon. 
And far unto the dawn her stay prolongs. 

What profits it to plough 

The barren sea ? Each bough 
Hangs heavy with its fruit, its shade, for thee ; 

While we the Sirens haunt 

Thy heart with fairest chaunt 
And life is one mellifluous harmony. 

Since each deciduous rose, 

And soft ephemeral snows. 
And loves more fragile and more fair than these, 

With stern fatality 

Mock man's mortality. 
Give o'er thy soul to songs that soothe and ease. 

23 



THE siren's song 

Then tarry ye a while, 

Fair wanderer, in this isle 
That harbours its delights for thine and thee. 

Yea, tarry, and rejoice 

To hear the Siren's voice, 
Oh, stay thy ship, fair wanderers ; tarry ye. 



24 



8 

THE NEW EDEN 

Nay, grieve not, heart of mine, but say. 
Ah, God, 't was sweet to love a day ! 
To love a little and forget — 
Who would not, though all time regret ? 
(Give over, for it may not be.) 

I lured Love with my songs, and you 
With all your beauty bent thereto ; 
The tree of Love waxed great and fair, 
And, lo, within its leaflike hair 

(God, it was goodly fair to see I ) 

25 



THE NEW EDEN 

Strange fragrant blossoms blood-red burst, 
And tempted us with sudden thirst — 
Alas, the bitter fruit they bore. 
With honeyed rind and wormwood core ! 
(Give over, for it may not be.) 

And I who tasted, shall I cry, 
" You tempted me, my Eve, and I — 
And I have eaten, and am sad. 
Yet for a little were we glad " 

(God, it was goodly fair to see ! ) 

Though I still sing my songs, and you 
With all your beauty bend thereto. 
Who shall change winter back to May ? 
And we too wend the selfsame way. 
(God, it was goodly fair to see.) 

26 



THE NEW EDEN 

Give thanks to Love for what has been, 
And cry again with voice serene, 
" Nay, grieve not, heart of mine, but say, 
Ah, God, 't was sweet to love a day ! " 
(Give over, for it may not be). 



27 



9 
A REVERIE 

I SAW within the roseate drooping twilight 
An island cradled on the waters blue ; 
A purple cloud, shot through with flame of day- 
light, 
Soft canopied the isle with wondrous hue. 

Then each desire of mine became a flower 
Upon its vernal banks ; methought to cull 
Those fragrant petals would assuage the power 
Of secret sorrows, while their scent would lull. 

But ever as my ship strove yearning shoreward, 
The island fled and faded in the night. 
With anxious eye I gazed and leaning forward, 
" Ah, who shall steer me to my heart's delight ? " 

28 



A REVERIE 

I cried. Among the purple sails soft stirring 
The wind made answer as with human breath : 
" This is the haven of Happiness we 're nearing. 
But lo ! the steersman at the helm is Death." 



29 



10 

ODE TO BACCHUS 

It is the month of Bacchus, when the Sun 
Has grown aweary of the gilded smile 
That summer lent him ; now he seems like one 
Who, half through tears no sweetness can 

beguile. 
Beams 'neath tired brows whereon a brooding 

cloud 
Obliterates the hope of bygone days : 
Dead days to be, when Spring's regenerate touch 
Shall rouse the world to fling her winter shroud. 
And fill the fields with flowers, and the ways 
Of heaven and earth with gladness overmuch. 

30 



I 



ODE TO BACCHUS 

Come, ye, with soft, shy tread, ye Hyads, come. 
Your rose-tipped fingers fashioning a wreath. 
And let your wine-flushed lips no more be dumb, 
And weave the dance along the dew-decked 

heath ! 
But you, sweet Pan, lead on the satyr brood 
Forth from cool caverns and from forest dells ; 
Awake the piping of the rustic reed, 
That through the heights, along the leafless wood, 
The melody may hover till it swells 
The universal paean of the mead. 

Crown him with ivy, with the luscious leaves 
Of changeless green, and see within his hair 
The nestling tendrils of the vine that breathes 
Autumnal fragrance to the perfumed air. 
Slay ye a kid, a milk-white kid that bleats 

31 



ODE TO BACCHUS 

Unblemished. Shed his blood upon the vine j 
About its roots, grown thirsty, see ye pour 
Libation to the dead whom summer's heats 
Have smitten ; and forget not Proserpine, 
Who dwells in Hades till these days be o'er. 

Born and reborn, now sorrowful, now glad, 
Through change eternal rising from the sea, 
His are the tides that pulse, now slow, now 

mad. 
Within the blood of man and beast and tree ; 
His is the grape, a globe of fire and dew. 
Dusky as night, like day shot through with fire. 
An amber bead of sunshine and of rain ; 
To solace woe, for those who rightly sue. 
And drown despair or kindle dead desire. 
On to the mountains, hail him from the main ! 

32 



ODE TO BACCHUS 

Ye maids of Thebes, ye mothers, hurry hence. 
For madness mingles with the midnight air. 
The liberator Bacchus ! whither, whence ? 
Then follow, follow, track him to his lair. 
Unbind your tresses, let your fillets fall. 
And seize ye each a thyrsus sharp and sweet. 
Forget not then to draw the dappled fawn 
About your foam-white shoulders as ye call, 
Euot, Bacchus ! hurry we to greet 
The God before the sky is strewn with dawn. 

Away, away, the night is now nigh spent ! 
Lo, through the forest see each flitting light. 
As if the stars unto the trees had bent, 
In pity of their cold and wintry plight. 
What madness is abroad ? — yet, stay, what cry 
Of man or beast that stabs the hour of sleep, 

3 33 



ODE TO BACCHUS 



As lightning stabs the darkness ? Nay, then hear 
The waves upon the shore, the breezes sigh, 
'Evol, Bacchus ! while from vale and steep 
A thousand echoes toss it to the ear. 



34 



II 
LOVE AND LEARNING 

How oft before the poet and the sage, 
Before these mortals grown as gods to men, 
Have I paused reverencing the Immortal page, 
Athirst and hungry, e'en as Israel when 
They grew aweary with the wilderness. 
Lo ! Here is new shed manna for the mind. 
Here wisdom's font shall slake the soul's distress, 
And here the cloud of flame shall lead the blind ! 

What were these gifts of greatness unto me 
But priceless pearls, before me idly flung, 

35 



LOVE AND LEARNING 

Till thou didst first reveal the mystery 
Concealed in sacred, but in secret tongue ? 
Thus, seeking learning, have I learned Love's 

lore 
And Wisdom through Love regnant evermore. 



36 



12 

REMEMBER 

{jiprh De Musset) 

Remember ; when the timid dawn 
Unbars her charmed palace to the sun, 
Remember, when the plaintive night forlorn 
Dreaming beneath her silver veil steals on, 
The thought of pleasure that thy panting breast 

delights, 
The sweet, soft dreams that Evening's shade 
invites. 

While in the woods below 

A voice is murmuring low, — 
Remember ! 

37 



REMEMBER 

Remember ; when the hand of Fate 

Shall part us and forever separate, 

When sorrow, banishment, and length of 

years. 
Shall wilt the heait with desolating tears. 
Dream of my passion sweet, dream of my last 

farewell, 
No time shall conquer love, no absence quell ; 
For each heart-beat shall say 
To-morrow, as to-day. 
Remember ! 

Remember ; when beneath Earth's cold 
My broken body shall forever sleep ; 
Remember, when the flower over-bold 
From out my mouldering grave shall gently 
creep : 

38 



REMEMBER 

Unknown and undivined my deathless soul shall 

stray 
Beside thee ever in that latter day, 

While through the night a groan, 
Shall voice the monotone 
Remember ! 



39 



13 

THE BETTER PART 

Life is a perilous and piteous thing ; 

I know not if Death's ways be strewn with 

sleep 
Or with a light relentless, keen to bring 
Before our waking souls the sins we weep. 

Yet though the whole world weep for very 

shame 
Upon the sin that holds mine eyelids dry, 
I call for witness on Christ's spotless name 
That no man is more innocent than I. 

40 



THE BETTER PART 

They took me from her, not a farewell word 
For all my hours of longing and of love ! 
She lay as listless as a wounded bird, 
Yet in her whiteness shamed the milk-white 
dove. 

Dead, dead before me ! — strange it is that Life 
Should yield to Death her fairest ornament. 
Do the dead smile ? Nay, see what sign of 

strife. 
If she be slain, what wound is here, what rent ? 

Small wonder she whom Heaven made so 

fair 
Turned false to me and wearied of the love. 
The maddening adoration and the care. 
The worship, that she stole from God above. 

41 



THE BETTER PART 

Nay, marvel rather that a little time, 
A little space of joy she found for me, 
Before she scorned me, like a bitter rhyme. 
And made my name a thing of mockery. 

Then was I like a man some fragrant dream 
And delicate has long deluded ; yea, 
I could not quite believe that which did seem 
To challenge all my sight by night, by day. 

Fair had she been when mine, but fairer now, 
Her alien beauty maddened all my breast 
And angered me, until I made a vow — 
God help me, father, know you not the rest ? 

How all her sweetness stung me, now not mine ! 
I saw the burnished hair that framed her face 
Tangle the sunlight, sweetly did it shine 
Caught up or loosened with elusive grace ; 

42 



THE BETTER PART 

Loosened or looped to please another's eye — 
Those meshes that had snared my guileless 

heart ; 
I heard the little laugh, the soft reply 
Wherein that other man had lot and part. 

It was not well that they should flaunt their 

sin 
Before my famished eyes, and laugh their love 
While, like an outcast from the feast within. 
For but a smile I hungered and I strove. 

Sorrow so wrought with me that I was grown 
A shadow of a man ; at every pore 
I felt the prick of pain, yea, flesh and bone 
With sudden weakness sickened more and 
more. 

43 



THE BETTER PART 

Sleep fled mine eyes and through the hovering 

night 
I watched and worshipped all her loveliness ; 
The eyelids flowerlike folded from the light, 
The lurking gold of each abandoned tress ; 

The purple veins whose vinelike tracery, 
Crept all along the ivory of her arm ; 
The blood that shook her throat, the witchery 
That held mine eyes beneath her sleepless charm. 

And many a night I wearied, seeing how 
The moonlight wooed the sunlight of her hair. 
While through the open casement soft and 

low 
The nightingale's mad song flamed through the 

air. 

44 



THE BETTER PART 

'T was yester-e'en ; more faithful than a priest 
I watched the passing of each gradual hour. 
Mine eyes inviting all my soul to feast. 
Helpless, her fragile beauty held my power. 

She slept, at times I saw a furtive smile 

Creep like a sunbeam o'er her flower-soft mouth ; 

She dreamed, and dreaming, with unconscious 

guile. 
Her lips found mine so long given o'er to 

drouth. 

God, how I loved her ! Till a recreant tear 

Fell on her face and woke her. Suddenly 

A name, his name, she sighed, then seized with 

fear, 
" Ah, you ! " she laughed and laughed right 

bitterly — 

45 



THE BETTER PART 

I saw not, for the night grew very black, 
I grappled with a foe, my giddy brain 
Seemed spinning down to Hell, or reeling back 
To unseen torture and to hideous pain. 

A soft thing fluttered like a frightened bird 
Between my fingers, fluttered and was still. 
The blood within her throat no longer stirred. 
I looked, I kissed her ; she had laughed her fill. 

Her wide eyes watched me, but she did not say 
One little word for all the pious care 
Wherewith I tended her until the day 
Stole in and found me braiding up her hair. 

They say I killed her, sent her guilty soul 
Wailing down all the fiery gulfs of Hell ; 
They tell me, when the matin bell shall toll, 
That I must die, and though I know it well, 

46 



THE BETTER PART 

One pang the more shall make an end of pain. 
Yet you know, father, I am innocent — 
But tell it not, to die I am so fain ; 
Then pray for me that Death be quickly sent. 

Though like twin flames that bend before the 

wind 
Now whirled together, and now blown apart. 
We burn forever ; let her lover find 
What joy life has. Mine is the better part. 



47 



14 
ONE HAPPY HOUR 

One happy hour from out his honeyed store 
Reluctant Love has granted me ; once more 
I see the fragile beauty of her face 
Draw swiftly toward me, as with elfin grace 
She stoops to raise the heart that would adore. 
Shall all things be as in the days before 
My happiness lay shattered to the core ? 
Think you that Hate would yield to Love his 
place 

One happy hour ? 

48 



ONE HAPPY HOUR 

Hers are the eyes whose pity I implore ! 

Ah ! Let me dream them — as I dreamed of 

yore — 
More true, more blue than heaven's sapphire 

space, 
That, when joy flees before stern Sorrow's pace, 
Sweet Memory may yield me o'er and o'er 
One happy hour ! 



49 



15 

PARTING 

See, love, your eyes in my eyes, 
This hour with its sweets, how it flies. 

Ah, would some soft-winged word 
Might nest in your heart like a bird ! 

O love^ your hands in my hands^ 

Who conquers love who understands, - 

The sudden shaft of the light 

That sunders the heart of the night ; 

The silver gleam of a stream — 
'Twixt shadowy banks of a dream — 

50 



PARTING 

In anxious flight to the sea, 
And then is it well, will it be ? 

Ah, love, your mouth to my mouth. 
One kiss for a lifetime of drouth ! 



51 



i6 
SAPPHIC ODE TO APHRODITE 

Aphrodite, subtle of mind, immortal, 

Child of Zeus, and Weaver of wiles, I pray 

thee 
Do not thou, with pains and distress subduing. 
Gracious one, tame me. 

But come hither, if thou didst ever, praying, 
Heed of old my voice though afar, and heeding 
Left thy father's dwelling, a golden mansion, 
Yea, and thou camest, 

52 



SAPPHIC ODE TO APHRODITE 

Having yoked thy chariot, while there drew thee 
Sparrows fair and fleet round the dark earth 

flapping — 
Swiftly flapping — wings from the heaven down- 
ward 

Through the mid-ether. 

Onward, earthward came they, and fast arriving 
Thy immortal countenance smiling asked me — 
Blessed one — What evil is come upon me. 
Why do I call thee ? 

What thing I desire, even more than all things 
Raging in my heart, and — " Who now persuading 
Wouldst thou lead to love thee" (to love me), 
saying, — 

" Sappho, who wrongs thee ? " 

53 



SAPPHIC ODE TO APHRODITE 

" Even though she flees she shall swiftly follow ; 
She who would not take of thy gifts shall give 

them ; 
She who would not love thee shall quickly love 

thee — 

Yea, though she would not." 

Come to me, and coming I pray release me. 
Loose my care grown grievous, and even all 

things. 
Whatsoe'er my heart doth desire, accomplish ; 
Be thou mine ally. 



54 



^7 

SAPPHICS 

Darkness and Daylight 

Far beyond the fields where the sea lies sleeping 
Hovers Daylight, flushed with regret and feeling, 
All the Gold of Hope on her drowsy forehead 
Silently darkening. 

Through the languid night that the wild winds 

lull not, 
Dyed about with purple and dark with weeping, 
Send me. Sweet, a dream on the wings of Hope 

borne. 

Down to me sleeping. 

55 



SAPPHICS 

Let its feet be shod with a sudden longing, 
Let its breath be warm with the joy of spring- 
time, 
Let its hands be dipped in the dew of Lethe, 
Soothing and subtle. 

Then my heart shall sing with a joy new risen, 
All my night shall yearn to the light of day-time, 
One brief hour obliterate all the weary 
Waiting without thee. 



56 



i8 
RONDEL 

Sleep is a thornless rose upon Life's breast, 
Whose opalescent petals breathe forth rest ; 
More mellow than the moon's melodious light, 
Subtle of fragrance, fraught with strange delight 
Of fragile dreams and delicate repose. 
Sleep is a thornless rose ! 

Love is a blood-red rose of poignant thorn 
Whereby the flower-soft heart is bled and torn, 
While all the crimson leaves burn brighter, gain 
New lustre from the crimson drops of pain. 
How brief its beauty ; yet, while still it glows. 
Love is a blood-red rose. 

57 



^9 
AMECHANIA 

Too many things we seek, we fling our youth 
Like hoarded gold at length inherited, 
And when the last unreckoned coin has sped, 
Our empty laughter rings the pregnant truth ! 
Then shamed to effort, with a toil uncouth 
We heap us riches of the dust ; we tread 
Our hopes to ashes, and our hearts are fed 
On bitter husks that parch the burning mouth. 

Such wealth is ours as beggars us. Ah ! when 
There comes the flash of vision to our eyes 
We see the distant hills, and we despise 
This walking in the valley with mean men j 
And naked of our cares, as runners run. 
We hasten upward toward the failing sun. 

58 



20 

FROM LA SAMARITANE 

I 

Photine sings : 

1. O MY beloved, through the day I sought 

in vain 
And found thee not; night gives me back 

my own again. 
The growing darkness lends us still some 
little light, 

And in thy sight, 
Mine eyes delight. 

2. Softer thy name than all the precious oils 

that flow ; 
Sweeter thy breath to me than all the 
flowers that blow ; 

59 



FROM LA SAMARITANE 

Thy words are drops of honey, and thy 
sweet, light eyes. 

Turned mirror-wise. 
Hold all the skies. 

3. Ah ! Like a rose, a tender rose that boasts 
no thorn 
My heart leans towards thee, seeking thee 

from morn till morn ! 
As gently as a perfume on my heart, come 
rest — 

A strong seal pressed 
Against my breast ! 



60 



21 

II 

SONG 

When we would play 
Some dancing air, 
All glad and gay, 
Ye did not care. 

And when the strain 
Was soft and sad. 
We piped in vain, 
No tears ye had. 



6l 



22 

FAREWELL 

Farewell ; the half-averted face of day 
Retreats behind the portals of the night, 
Yet clear before us lies the sundered way — 
My path of darkness, and thy trail of light. 
Ah, love, no longer mine, for all our tears 
This ruthless day unmakes the might of years ! 
I loved thee over well. 
And yet farewell ! 

Farewell ; 't were easier to give to death 

Thy loveliness. Love, though thou set him 

free, 
Within my heart beats like a prisoned bee. 

62 



FAREWELL 

Where dwelt my honeyed hours of happiness 
Are faded ghosts that mock at my distress. 
Their bloodless voices tell 
A faint farewell. 

Farewell ; when 'neath a robe of pitying clay, 
My heart shall slumber in indiiFerent rest, 
Assuaged of sorrow, nor by mirth oppressed. 
Dead as my happiness lies slain to-day, 
Perchance this moan shall wake thy memory, - 
My life, my all I lost, once losing thee. 
Long e'er the tolling bell 
Could knell. Farewell ! 



63 



23 

LOVE'S SILENCE 

I 

We drifted on the tranquil twilight sea, 
A mirror to the radiance of the sky, 
Wherein we watched the flaming clouds float by, 
Tracing the waves with painted imagery. 
Hushed was her song ; on, on mysteriously, 
In silence unperplexed of sound or sigh. 
We glided, with our idle oars held high 
Lest they should drip their drowsy melody. 

For all a world of men we two alone ! 

While LOVE remembered, bid our love surmise 

64 



love's silence 

A world of love, that grew before our eyes 

Unlimited in scope and horizon. 

So dreamed we what should be, from what had 

been. 
With married thoughts no word could get 

between. 



6s 



24 

LIFE IN DEATH 

II 
Through all the dark and hollow hours of 

night, 
Pain held aloof the baffled touch of sleep ; 
With dreamless eyes I lay, too sad to weep, 
When, lo, a vision ! Brighter and more bright, 
Clothed all about with strange, uncertain light. 
The lords of Life and Death methought did 

keep 
Expectant vigil through the silence deep ; 
And as I marvelled, lo, a piteous sight ! 

66 



LIFE IN DEATH 

Mine was Life's countenance, and mine Death's 

face 
That swiftly neared me, as a shadow steals 
With flowing steps and soft, repulsive grace. 
I lay as one who suffers not nor feels ; 
Yet ere Death's closing kiss could seal him mine 
Thy lips. Beloved, brought Love's anodyne. 



&7 



25 

DEATH IN LIFE 

III 

Let no man henceforth cast his dart at 

Death, 
Nor hastily conceive of him a foe. 
Since he alone relief unending hath 
From Life's eternal tyranny of woe. 
Upon a midnight, often would I weep 
The blind inexpiable cruelty 
Wherewith Death snares, in sudden nets of 

sleep. 
The loved one, bids the lover wander free ! 

68 



DEATH IN LIFE 

Ah, vacant fear ! Though my beloved lives, 

No longer love doth love anticipate ; 

To mine unanswered prayers grown deaf, she 

gives 
A blind indifference more keen than hate. 
A grief beyond my grief what man can prove. 
Since Life, not Death, hath robbed me of my 

love ? 



69 



26 

REQUIESCAT 

R. G. I. 

Part I 

Grief hath no utterance in human speech 
To half reveal its pangs or clothe its pain, 
But sits apart wide-eyed and dumb, for vain 
It were to plead for those beyond Life's reach. 

'T is sweet to think Earth gathers to her breast 
The stricken hyacinth, and that dear head 
Fallen flowerwise, say we of our cherished dead. 
And feels our loss is hers, though they have rest. 

70 



REQUIESCAT 

Rest, roseate rest, for all those fallen on sleep. 
When, as a rain-drop seeks the gathering sea, 
They slip within a still eternity, 
While we an unrequited vigil keep — 

Yea, watch and weep, but see not with our 

eyes 
Aught save the vacant hours and ashen face 
Of Life, and cry on Death to give us place 
Among his host, since dead Life's sweetness 

lies. 

Yea, weep and watch, and with our lambent 

tears 
Tell orisons, still hugging our despair, 
Since all Life holds for us of sweet or fair 
Fades with the fading melancholy years. 

71 



REQUIESCAT 

Floats like a leaf adown some sullen stream, 
A leaf Death's wind has blasted with his 

breath, — 
Drifts whither — to what hidden home of 

Death ? 
And vanishes like a deciduous dream. 

A dream ! so cry we. Vain was our delight, 
And like to moving mists at break of day 
It lifts, yet leaves no light, dissolves away 
And scatters us like phantoms of the night ! 

How shall we pierce the ears now deaf with 

dust. 
Unseal the sleep that moulders in his eyes. 
Unlock his lips with eloquence of sighs ? 
Shall Love avail us. Love in whom we trust ? 

72 



REQUIESCAT 

Ah, Love, sweet Love ! so bitter when the 

sweet 
Is but remembered, while no hour forgets 
The salient sorrow and the sharp regrets, 
Yet all thy trodden paths forget his feet ! 

Ah Life, wild Life ! so fraught with change and 

pain. 
How like a stream that courses on its way 
Between the alternate banks of night and 

day. 
From whence to whither, fleeing thus in vain ! 

A stream of liquid darkness, save where Love 
Breaking the darkness into bits of light. 
Glitters a moment for Life's brief delight 
Leaning to slake his thirst from heaven above. 

73 



REQUIESCAT 

A golden moment, ere the moment goes 
Turning delight to dumb and dead despair ; 
Would we could seize it by the fleeing hair 
And hale it back to share our joys, our throes ! 

Alas, behold the world's fluidity ! 

The change that clears or clouds the covering 

sky. 
Quenches the sun, and dooms each day to die, 
Leads back and forth the waters of the sea ; 

Crumbles the rocks to sand, and builds again 
The mountains, lights or darkens all the stars 
And makes man's might, unmakes it, breaks it, 

mars 
The order, and makes strife a thing in vain. 



74 



27 

Part II 

I HEARD a distant voice upon the hills, 
A wandering sound of lamentation, where 
The nymph Eleutheria hath her lair 
Deep hidden by the source of mountain rills. 

" Lo, he is dead, my brother, he who sang 
The praise and power of freedom unto man, 
Showed God but man, and man a mightier 

than 
The gods we serve through fear of Death's keen 

pang. 

75 



REQUIESCAT 

" The gods, the changing gods are many, they 

Follow their orbits, climb their little path. 

And wax and wane beneath their victims' 

wrath 
Till man who made them lays them each away. 

" Oh, brother ! oh, my brother, strong wert thou 
To smite asunder all the lies of life ; 
Strong as the sea, incessant in thy strife. 
Yet what avails thy might grown strengthless 
now ? 

" E'en as a flame burns upward, so thy mind 
Soared toward the Truth, turned as a flower 

will turn 
To seek the sun, nor seeing didst thou spurn 
To show its goodly face to human kind. 

76 



REQUIESCAT 

" Change, only change in all we know or see, 
While truth like water through our fingers 

slips ; 
Yet truth was ever, brother, on thy lips 
Telling not God's, but man's divinity. 

" Bring pansies with their velvet for his shroud. 
And Spring's first darling, the anemone. 
And gold-eyed daisies, whose simplicity 
Mocks at the sun within his station proud. 

" Bring violets like drops of purple rain, 
And shear the earth of all diurnal flowers. 
Pluck up her blossoms, and break down her 

bowers. 
Since on her bosom lies our loved one — 

^'"'"- ■ LofC, 
17 



REQUIESCAT 

" Scatter the primrose and that flower of Peace 
The white Narcissus, whom pale Proserpine 
Plucked, and Death whispered unto young Life 

' Mine ! 
No time shall bring thee ransom nor release.' 

" Lo, once again the Gatherer, loverwise 
' Kisses his eyelids down,' and to his mouth, 
Insatiate with love and yearning's drouth. 
Turns, claiming his control — smiles down our 
sighs. 

" Yea, Life and Death were rivals for his love ! 
From the dead ashes leaps the living flame 
To light the immortal glory of his fame — 
This much hath Life whom Death lords it 
above. 

78 



REQUIESCAT 

" Supernal sleep, what better thing for thee 
While deep within the hollow of our hearts 
We hide our pain, and, till our life departs. 
Burn there the quenchless flame of memory ! " 

Sleep, dost thou sleep ? Perchance Death's 

trenchant light 
Darkens our eyes and blinds us, lest we see 
What was before our birth, and what shall be 
When we set sail upon the sea of Night. 



79 



Apr -22 i90l {N\\) 



APR 3 1901 















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